


A Christmas Dream In Annville

by Ali_Amberfall



Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28427175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ali_Amberfall/pseuds/Ali_Amberfall
Summary: A Christmas gift for one of my Tumblr friends for a gift exchange we had.A little late but here is part 1!
Relationships: Jesse Custer/Tulip O'Hare, Proinsias Cassidy/Original Female Character(s)





	A Christmas Dream In Annville

It was winter in Annville and Christmas was closing in quickly. Eileen had Tulip drop her off at All Saints Congressional when she got an urgent sounding text from Emily about needing help asap. She had to wonder what the other woman needed help with but as soon as Eileen walked through the church doors she was greeted with a large box of Christmas decorations being shoved into her face. She grabbed the box without thinking and looked at Emily who looked frazzled. 

“Good you're here!” The mother of three exclaimed and grabbed her purse and jacket from the corner. Emily looked like she was ready to bolt out of the church at any second. “You can help with the Christmas decorations!” Emily had asked Cassidy all week to get them put up but the holiday was only two days away and the church wasn't decorated yet. Even Jesse didn't seem to care all that much that the church wasn't decorated yet but then again he just hung up a wreath and some lights last year.

Eileen was a little confused at fist and looked down at the box of decorations in her arms. “Huh?” She suddenly realized how close Christmas was and it was only a few days away. Being on the run for the last five years didn't give her that much time to stop and celebrate holidays much. Her blue eyes traveled back to Emily who was grabbing her car keys.

Emily slung her purse over her shoulder and started to ramble on. “I have to rush home because one of my kids got sick and Miles is stuck in some meeting.” She sighed and shook her head. “I've been pestering Cassidy to get the decorations up all week but he is still sleeping in the attic.” She remembered the AC still needed to be fixed but she wasn't surprised at all. “But Jesse wanted us to put some effort this year with decorating and he wanted it done before service this Sunday. So I'd like to get everything up by today.” Emily slowly made her way over to the church doors and looked at Eileen.

The ex vampire hunter really didn't feel like spending her Friday being stuck with doing decorations since she was more concerned about the vampire hunters chasing her down. For the last five years she was on the run and they still haven't let up. They always found her when she thought she was finally safe from them. “But I'm not even that good at decorating.” She turned around to look at Emily before continuing. “Maybe you can get Tulip to-”

But Emily wasn't having it and was done with the excuses. “Just make sure the decoration are visible when everyone comes to the service this Sunday? The tree is in the attic where Cassidy sleeps so maybe you can try you luck at getting him to help?” She opened the church doors and called back. “I have to get going now!”

Eileen watched Emily leave and sighed while holding the box of Christmas decorations. She walked over to one of the benches to set the decorations down. The woman never really celebrated Christmas let alone trying to decorate for the holiday. It sounded easy enough but she dreaded having to redecorate because Emily didn't like the placement of something or even worse if the tree was set up in the wrong spot.

She made her way up to the attic and saw Cassidy asleep on the old mattress nearby. She found the Christmas tree quickly but after a few tugs it was stuck with the other boxes with various labels. With a sigh she walked over to the sleeping vampire and noticed he was shirtless with a ratty old blanket laid over the lower half of his body. The young woman kicked the side of the mattress in an attempt to wake him up. “Cassidy!”

Cassidy jolted awake and opened his eyes at the sudden bump against the mattress. “Huh?” He looked over and saw Eileen. “Eileen?” She was standing over the mattress with her arms crossed and staring at him. “What are you doing here?” He really wasn't expecting her to come up to the attic to disturb him unless it was really important. He sat up careful to not let the blanket fall too far off of him and he raise and eyebrow. “You didn't change your mind about killing me have you?”

She chuckled and smirked. “No Cassidy.” She shook her head. “I haven't changed my mind and I wouldn't.” The ex vampire hunter pointed over to the dusty Christmas tree box behind her. “Emily wants us to put up the Christmas decorations and get the tree set up too.” Ever since Cassidy had helped her with the few vampire hunters after her she didn't think Cassidy wasn't all that bad. He was nothing like the typical vampires she heard about in the past.

Cassidy was hung over and still trying to recover from the drug and alcohol fueled bender he had the last night. “Right now?” He groaned and wondered what time it was. “Can't we do it later? What time is it?” The vampire flopped back down onto the mattress and closed his eyes as he felt a headache come on.

Eileen looked down at him and smiled in amusement of him not wanting to get out of bed like some child. “Yes. Now.” She brushed a strand of hair out of her face and continued. “Today is Friday and Christmas Eve is this Sunday.” The woman looked at her phone to check the time. “And its a quarter past noon.” She looked back down at Cassidy who still had his eyes closed. “Emily had to run back home because one of her kids got sick so I think she'd appreciate the help..” For as much as she didn't want to be stuck here decorating alone it would be much faster if she could enlist the vampire's help.

A few moments passed and Cassidy sat back up with his eyes open. “Shite! This Sunday?!” He ran a hand through his dark messy hair. “I just about forgot Christmas was coming around!” He didn't have plans to celebrate Christmas and Jesse seemed like he wasn't much of the type as well. The vampire remembered mentioning it to Jesse a few times before but the Preacher seemed more interested in helping the people of Annville then spreading the holiday cheer around.

The dark haired woman chuckled but could relate as she almost forgot about Christmas as well. “You are 119 years old and Christmas falls on the same day every year.” She had to poke some fun at him though since he has had about 119 Christmas's to celebrate in the past. “How can you forget about it?”

Cassidy looked at her and pointed. “I'll have you know I've missed a few in my time. Sometimes I celebrate and others I don't bother.” He didn't mind celebrating Christmas when he had others to spend and enjoy it with but for the times he was alone it was just a painful reminder of his immortality. It was hard to watch them get old and pass away.. kinda took the fun out of it.

She nodded understanding that it may of gotten hard to keep track of. “That's true and I can say you got me there. I know there are only so many time you can put up a tree, decorate and get into the cheerful mood everyone forces on you.” Eileen knew that it probably got lonely for him at times and growing up she didn't really get a chance to celebrate it since her parents died when she was young. She shook her head at the depressing thoughts and continued. “Anyways, you can help me bring down the Christmas tree.” She pointed to a large box behind her. “Saw the box in the corner over there but its stuck.”

The vampire glanced over at the Christmas tree box then down at himself. He smirked and looked back up at Eileen. “Gonna need to get decent first love.” Cassidy grabbed the edge of the blanket and raised an eyebrow. “Unless you really want me to bring it down in me birthday suit?” He wasn't completely nude but didn't have that many layers of clothing on. Cass couldn't resist getting a reaction out of the other woman though. 

Eileen furrowed her brow in confusion and tried not to picture him nude helping her with the Christmas tree. “Are you saying you sleep in the nude?” Technically the attic was his room but she could only imagine Emily or Jesse walking in on him at the wrong time. Then again she didn't know if Cassidy was really one to care about modesty being as old as he was. “Because that is something I don't want to picture right now!”

He smirk turned into a toothy grin as he tugged on the blanket. “You want to find out?” He watched in amusement as her eyes widened and a blush came to her cheeks. He enjoyed the more friendlier side of Eileen as opposed to when they were arguing all the time when they first met. He knew the ex vampire hunter like herself probably wasn't interested in getting with a vampire and knew it wouldn't move past friendship with them.

She was caught off guard and felt her cheeks get redder at the though of him in the nude. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Remembering that they were in a church and this wasn't the place for those kinda thoughts. “No! On second thought- no I don't!” Eileen opened her eyes and thankfully he still had the blanket on his lover half. She sighed. “Get dressed and I'll get started on the decorations downstairs.” She started to walk downstairs and called out. “You have that vampire strength to bring it down yourself!”

It was true that he could get the box out with ease but a part of him wanted her to help him. He watched as she made her way back down to the main floor of the church. He tossed the blanket off of himself and got up to stretch. “Be down soon!” He called out and got dressed.

–

After Cassidy had brought the Christmas tree box down they pulled out the dusty tree and gotten it set up. Eileen had gotten most of the decorations set up on the walls and started to pull out Christmas ornaments from the box. She noticed they were kinda old and rough looking. The woman wondered if some were even old donations from the residents in Annville as none of them seemed to match very well. Cassidy was busy spreading out the fake branches of the Christmas tree before a part broke off that he stuck back into the tree, hoping no one would notice.

Eileen grabbed some sparkly angel ornament and found a good spot to place it on the tree. “I am so bad at decorating stuff and it doesn't help that all of these decorations don't seem to match.” Some of them ranged from really nice looking and then others looked like bad school projects that no one wanted anymore.

Cassidy grabbed an ornament that looked like a blobby felt cat cutout with a Santa hat. He placed it next to a shiny gold ball with intricate designs on it. Can't say that I'd be any better at it. See how ugly this one is?” He pointed to the felt cat he just placed up and glanced at Eileen who was trying to space out more fake tree branches. “Did you celebrate Christmas growing up?”

The woman paused and sighed shaking her head. “No, not really.” She looked over at Cass. “I remember celebrating it before my parents passed away. After that my adoptive father had me join Odre des Saints. To them it was more important to study and train how to hunt down vampires.” She grabbed another ornament from the large box by her feet. “When Christmas did come around it was more of a job and less.. fun?” She glanced at Cassidy. “What about you Cass?”

“It's a good enough holiday that I don't mind cerebrating when I can. Get to drink alcoholic eggnog, hang out with some good mates and share stories.” He idly played with another ornament and thought how he experienced a lot more Christmas's then Eileen. Cassidy remembered how Eileen told him she never sought out the life of a vampire hunter so she didn't get to experience a lot of things.

She watched Cassidy and realized asking him about Christmas growing up was probably a bad thing to ask but his answer was pretty vague. “Yeah.” She stepped closer to Cassidy to place another ornament on a branch and he did the same with the ornament in his hand. “The library L'Odre des Saints had was huge so I read a lot in my spare time. I got to read about a lot of the different Christmas traditions around the world.”

“Really?” Cassidy looked over at her. “Like what?” He knew of only a few handful over the years but never made an effort to learn many other cultures traditions. Though he had noticed they've changed a lot over the years from what he saw in the last one hundred years.

Eileen paused and thought for a few moments before looking over at Cassidy. “Well, the French are big on their love of food, mistletoe and Yule Logs. Then you have Krampusnacht or Krampus Night. Christmas devil that punishes bad children while St. Nicholas was the one who gave gifts to the good kids. But one of the more interesting ones is in South Wales. Did you know they have rap battles with a horse skull called Mari Lwyd? And if you lose this rap battle he gets to raid your kitchen? Though in some versions its a poetry or rhyming battle. But I think it pretty funny. “ She smiled as she finished rambling.

Cassidy chuckled at the thought of some rapping horse skull raiding someones kitchen. “Rap battle with a horse skull? Reminds me of the one time I saw a real unicorn by a stream.” He looked at Eileen expecting her to not believe him.

She furrows her brow and repeats the mythical creature. “A unicorn?” She nods her head slowly. “Hmm.. well, vampires, werewolves and angels are all real so why not unicorns?” Eileen smiled and looked at Cass.

He looked at her mildly surprised. “You believe me then?” Most of the times when he told the story people didn't believe him but he swore he was completely sober at the time. Eileen nodded her head and smiled while putting another ornament on the tree.

After a few moments Eileen spoke up. “What about back in Ireland? Have any folklore or traditions they had back when you lived there?” Cassidy was certainly an interesting person but he rarely talked about life back home if never. Sure he mentioned Granny B but that was less believable when she found out he was a vampire.

Cassidy smiled weakly at her interest in how he celebrated Christmas as a child. In his own opinion it was the best way to have it without all the commercialized stuff thrown into your face. He thought back and started to go on from what he could remember. “Decorating the house with so much holly the smell sticks around months later. We had this massive holly wreath we always put on the front door. The man of the house would always go out to get this thing called a Christmas Box. Had everything you needed for this big dinner on Christmas Eve. I remember us leaving the door latch open and setting the fireplace on during Christmas Eve night. Then the youngest member of the household would light candles at every window so Mary and Joseph could find their way through the night.” He started to zone out and then looked a bit sad. Cassidy missed his family..

After a few moments Eileen spoke up realizing how personal it must have been for him to share with her. “That sounds really nice..” She noticed how he seemed like he was going to tear up and she felt bad for stirring up memories of his family. “Sorry if I brought back painful memories..”

“No, no.” He shook his head and closed his eyes before opening them again and looking at Eileen. He gave her a weak smile. “Live as long as me and you get used to being alone without friends and the ones you love.”

Eileen gave him a weak smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Cass.. you're not alone now. You have me. Tulip and Jesse with you this year.” He returned the smile as she continued. “Tulip wants us to have this big Christmas dinner and you should come along.. in fact your invited to come.”

The vampire chuckled. “Thanks love. I'll bring the booze.”

**Author's Note:**

> Eileen Morgan is my OC that I have planned for my much larger fic for Preacher. Stay tuned for more with my main fic!
> 
> <3


End file.
